Good Morning and Happy Monday! Each Monday I'm going to be featuring one of the baby quilts I have for sale on my website. You might also want to check the website for the new December "seasonal blurb" in the right hand column of the Home Page. I know we still have one more day of November left but with the Thanksgiving Weekend finally over, it SEEMS like it should be December today!
Okay, on to the Featured Quilt of the Week:
DREAM IN COLOR
When I first started working on this quilt, it was to be for the expected first child of a dear friend. They didn't know the sex of the baby so I decided I'd just make it bright and colorful which would be suitable for either a little boy or girl.
Then as the quilt top grew on my design wall, I realized I had to make it longer than I had planned in order for the pattern to look good. But that was fine, it would just be a little larger than I had originally intended. About the time I was finishing the top, the little babe was born . . . a beautiful girl.
Hmmm. Okay, these colors would be fine for a toddler, boy OR girl, but for a newborn, little girl baby? Darn. Now I found myself wishing for something a little softer and more feminine in color.
But all was well because I was very happy with the way the quilt top looked and knew I still wanted to finish it. So I kept working on it.
Since the measurements of the top now indicated that it would be big enough for a toddler, I decided to use batting that would be poofy and more like a comforter. Just the perfect quilt to snuggle under on the couch for an afternoon nap. I doubled high-loft polyester batting . . . and then wondered (uh-oh) if I would have trouble quilting it because of the volume. But (whew!) it quilted like a dream and turned out really well.
Finished size of this baby quilt is 38-1/2" x 55-1/4" and will be a complete cover in a crib and yet ample on a toddler's bed. All my quilts are completely washable and dry-able lending them to years of loving use.
Little baby girl mentioned above? Of course, she got her quilt, too. A modified Irish Chain done in pastel 30s reproduction fabrics. I think she liked it.
Good thing I'm not a shopper because I'm not sure I would have the energy or stamina to gird my loins and join the masses searching out the best buys today.
I was so tired when I got into bed last night that it didn't even feel good to finally stretch out and relax. Ever feel that way? It wasn't that Thanksgiving Day wasn't a pleasant one with family and friends, it's just that there seems to be so much advance preparation involved for days (and days and days) beforehand. (Heck, I even dusted baseboards!)
There were just six of us here yesterday. Well, six people and four dogs. Fortunately, none of the dogs are used to being fed from the table (ba-a-a-a-d habit to start) so they were well-behaved. (There were periods when one could hardly navigate across the room because of sprawled dog bodies on the floor, however.) Anyway, there was an hour or so before the turkey came out of the oven that we were all sitting chatting. The guys got onto the topic of hunting (deer season ended here last weekend) and didn't even seem to notice the presence of females in the room, so we started our own good conversation.
But the thing that I liked best was the fact that all three of us women are handworkers. Very Pregnant Lady (so pregnant we didn't know if we might be taking her dinner up to her in the hospital) was well into crocheting a beautiful afghan. Chicken Mama (our daughter) was putting the finishing touches on little hats she's crocheting for a friend's children's Christmas picture. I was doing the quilting on little, tiny "quilts" I'll tie on Christmas packages and then that could be used for tree ornaments.
When I got the idea to do these a month or so ago . . . who knows, it could have been three months ago the way time goes by so fast . . . I made the one up to see if it was going to work. Pleased with the results, I cut and pieced these few more.
Each one measures 2-1/2" to 3" square.
I'm doing just a minimal amount of quilting on each one.
I have one more to quilt after the one I'm working on. Then binding on all of them, adding the cord hanging loop, and I'll be done.
In the past I've knitted miniature stockings, caps, and bells to use in the same way and I've gotta say these are going MUCH faster. Or maybe it just seems that way because I love quilting so much?
P.S. Over on my personal blog I posted about a hand knit shawl I just received as a gift. It's pretty unique as the knitted pattern resembles quilt blocks. You might want to take a peek at it.
One of the reasons I started this quilting blog was to connect with other online quilters to get a broader view of what was happening out there in the quilting world, and another was as an adjunct to the website I hoped to get up and running in order to sell my one-of-a-kind handmade baby quilts on the Internet.
Well, it took a long time, but with my computer savvy/website designer daughter coaxing, educating, pushing and pulling me the whole way, the Mama Pea Quilts website is officially up and running!
I am super-excited, a little shakey, and very happy. If a person is able to make a little money doing what they love to do, what can be better? To spend time each day in my quilt studio creating a quilt that will keep a little one warm or become a well-loved "security blankie" . . . that brings me a lot of enjoyment.
I've said before that quilting energizes me. Seeing the quilt take form from a concept of vague shapes, colors, pieces of fabric to a finished product that you can be proud to have for your own little baby or to give as a gift . . . I can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing. (Well, perhaps purchasing more fabric comes in a close second.)
Where will this little, fledgling Internet business take me? I don't know. But I'm anxious for the ride, and because of the pure pleasure I get from making baby quilts and the satisfaction of making them available to you, the struggle that it's taken to get this far will be worth it.
I hope you can find time to visit Mama Pea Quilts. Please feel free to leave a comment with any question or suggestion you may have by clicking here. If you'd like to be on our mailing list for notification of specials, new quilts, give-a-ways, etc. from
Mama Pea Quilts, just leave your name and e-mail address on our Mailing List page.
I look forward to getting to know all of you better through our Mama Pea Quilts website. Your visits there are always welcomed!
This yellow and purple baby quilt is all ready to be quilted. All that is needed is someone to sit at the machine and go for it.
I got this far this past weekend, thought I might get in a few hours yesterday, but didn't. Maybe today?
Yesterday's hours flew (I mean FLEW) by. I spent a bit of time working with my web designer daughter putting the finishing touches (you know, those last minute 526 little tweaks) on my website that we hope to go live with this week. The site will offer my one-of-a-kind handmade baby quilts for sale. It's something I've wanted to do for a looonng time, and with the help of my daughter, it's very, very close to becoming a reality. (Feel jittery excitement here.)
Stay tuned for the announcement of details soon.
I finally had the opportunity to make the trek to the big city yesterday to take my ailing sewing machine in for repairs. I dropped it off first thing in the morning (left extra early -- 6:30 AM -- so they would have maximum time to look at it) and when I called late in the afternoon to see if it might be done, I was thrilled.
It was! (I was sooo happy. Yes, I do have two good machines, but rely on both of them for different applications. Besides that, my sewing table looked absolutely nekked with the one machine not set up!)
Turns out my sick machine needed only a minor adjustment (I had convinced myself the whole computer was kaputz). The business where I have purchased both my machines offers periodic check-up, cleaning, oiling, etc. of all machines purchased there free of charge for the lifetime of the machine. Now when cleaning a sewing machine usually starts around $50, I think that's a darned good deal. Yesterday, my machine was given a complete going over and readjustment and I wasn't charged a thing. Wanna know where I'll buy my next upgrade when the time comes?
Anyway, this morning was spent playing catch-up from being gone all day yesterday so I haven't had time to even unpack my machine let alone do any quilting.
In lieu of anything new to show today, I thought I'd do this post on three of my favorite quilting tools: Seam Rippers, Applique Scissors and Marking Pencils.
I can't quilt without an iron and/or seam ripper. You would think a seam ripper was a seam ripper was a seam ripper, right?
As you can see by the above picture, I've used several seam rippers. 'Bout a year ago, I bought the red and white one shown at the top and now will not use any other. It's a Fons and Porter product and is advertised as being ergonomically designed. Come on. What's the big deal? It's a seam ripper!
Proven wrong again, I was. I find it extremely comfortable to hold, to direct, to use. It just feels good holding it in my hand. I like it.
You all know when you're quilting a quilt, you end up with a kajillion threads front and back that need to be snipped off.
These applique scissors are designed so that they cut flat against the fabric, leaving no little sticky-uppy pieces of thread. I don't machine quilt without having them on the table next to my machine.
Oh, boy, have I ever purchased (and discarded) a lot of marking pens/pencils. Now I use these two almost exclusively. And if I ever took the time to order some graphite leads for the red and white Fons and Porter marking pencil, I would only need that one.
I got the red and white "eversharp" pencil as a Christmas gift with the tube of extra white leads. The marks disappear readily under my stitched quilting lines or with a brief rubbing of my fingers over the fabric.
The black graphite pencil (also a gift -- thanks, J!) is much like the Fons and Porter one in that they both give the sharpest, cleanest marking lines I've found with any marking tool. The mark is always thin, the lead never gets thick and/or dull, and I don't waste time trying to sharpen the lead over and over again as with wooden marking pencils.
Ahhhhh, back in place again. Couple of things I have yet to do today before I can go hide in my quilt studio . . . just where I'd like to be this Friday night!
Because as soon as I finish one little task I'm usually on to the next without even thinking, I hardly ever find myself having to "kill time." But you've found me in a rare situation with a few minutes to spare, and I don't want to get involved with anything new because I'm waiting for the arrival of my daughter.
We have a date this morning to take pictures of the last three baby quilts I want to get up on my website before we "go public."
I want to sell my baby quilts online and since dear daughter is a website designer . . . she's been coerced into doing that aspect of the job for me. Seems like we've been working on this little (LITTLE? Ha! Chortle. Snort. Pa-shaw!) project FOREVER. On the other hand, we're both perfectionists and want everything to be juuust right before the grand unveiling.
The above is a picture of one of the three quilts we'll be photographing today. It's nice sized, 41-1/2" x 53-1/2", and I hope it finds a happy home with brand new bundle of joy soon.
Stayed up quilting maybe a little later than I should have last night (with the company of a glass of a good wine) but that enabled me to get the top completed today. (This is the baby quilt my daughter asked me to make.) Now at 4 PM, I'm being assaulted with one jaw-cracking yawn after another.
The solid gold fabric looks more orange-y in the photo than it really is. Had to take the picture on the design wall rather than out in our greenhouse where I seem to be able to get truer color representation. (Couldn't talk the dog into holding up the quilt top out there . . . and my main holder-upper [husband] was involved elsewhere.)
I had originally picked out a gorgeous blue for the center square of each 9-patch and the outer border setting triangles, but my daughter thought it would make the quilt look too specifically little boy-ish, so we switched to the gold keeping it more neutral in color.
But I keep thinking about that blue . . . so pretty . . . and I have quite a few squares left over that I cut for the 9-patches. I may have to make another one in a little different layout and use that blue fabric.
Okay, I'm going to try to get it backed and sandwiched tomorrow and then on with the quilting.
